By any chance was this inspired by Spybot: the Nightfall Incident? I can see the similarity in the unique abilities and units that use trails as health.

I already like this a lot. The AI is competent and forces some thought, even with only two unit types. That said relative obscurity of the cross unit's ability sticks out to me, particularly the way it changes range with trail length. It tangentially reminds me of a surreal, abstract-looking tactics game that had some notoriety on GameJolt, where nothing of the gameplay was explained and all the units had bizarre or unpredictable abilities that were a sick joy to discover (if anybody remembers the title...). I feel like you should capitalize on that feeling and explain only the common controls, allowing the player learn ever-weirder units for themselves.

What the hell, that control scheme. There's no reason not to just use the arrow keys here and leverage existing muscle memory for most players.

I almost never play any rhythm games but the difficulty seems excessive. Never found the time to look at your bunny waifu. It might be better if the idol camera took up the entire screen and the cues were laid on top of it.

Waifu aside, this seems like a real game that could've been made during the era you're going for and included on a 1000 game compilation cartridge. This can be a compliment if you want it to be. In that capacity it already stands on its own, although an extra enemy or some equivalent to the Pacman fruit wouldn't go amiss. I like the hunter's AI.

Fantastic art - sharp and clear designs for both the enemies and environment. I've always liked what you posted on the general.

The controls need to be more precise and predictable, at least in the water. The first games I think of when I think "9-way movement + dash" are Suguri and Sora; maybe try those out. In those games, the 'bulk' of the dash movement is similarly cannon-like, but you can always 100% control the starting direction without doing any preliminary key-tapping.

I realize the Harvest Moonesque gameplay involves a lot of waiting by its very nature but it seems kind of slow for a demo. The progression you have is acceptable for the full game but the keyword for this kind of jam is 'instant action' I think.

The crass dialogue is good. Don't you dare tone it down for the release.

Thirding the inventory and shop problems. If you end up doing something unusual with regards to the shop then try a 'highlighted button' tutorial the first time we see the screen.

Generally it's already pretty 'game like' and I feel you're mostly on the right track.

Thanks for your interest. A big update is in active development; it'll be the first 'game-like' build instead of being a tech demo. As such, you should expect to see a survival-style game mode with rudimentary menus for control mapping and graphics.

As of last week, the functionality for stealing stuff from NPC ships is more-or-less ready. Currently, I'm developing a formation-based NPC AI that will form the backbone of space combat. Instead of coming at the player in masses or waves, they'll exercise caution and force coordination commensurate with a threat like the monstrous General Purpose Machine.

Also in the works is a "toy" astrophysics implementation that seamlessly integrates realistic phenomena like moving planets and Hohmann Transfer-esque maneuvers with 'arcade'-style flight physics. Don't expect it to see it in the next build, but it's a thing that's happening eventually.

As for resource mining, there are plans to add a heavy 'kernel' to asteroids that make them impractical to use as armor, but which yield raw materials if destroyed. It's certainly not intended to be a main method of progression; "ratting" and wanton piracy are more the game's style.

Whatever the case, there'll be a new demo on September 8th or 9th with everything developed up to that point. See you then!